SXSW Projects

Beat the game or face death by flame!

Problem solving meets dragon slaying in this immersive VR game! Assess the situation, solve the puzzle, build your weapon and battle the monster in a virtual-reality experience that’ll singe the hairs on the back of your neck, and your entire body. Good luck…you’ll need it.

Story Behind the Project

(Virtual) Reality Check! A dragon has just attacked the king’s caravan, leaving it in a pile of ashes and smoking debris—and you are the last knight standing. It’s up to you to protect the royal treasure and defeat the dragon who has killed your fellow clansmen. The challenge? All you have at your disposal are the tools and scraps surrounding you. SlayTime implements a HTC Vive and Unity 3D to put you in this virtual world, where you must build weapon to defeat the dragon—all while blocking its fiery breath and dodging flaming debri with your sword.

SlayTime combines the problem-solving aspects of a puzzle game with an action-packed battle element, resulting in an immersive, intellectually stimulating and adrenaline-pumping VR experience.

Tech Specs

HTC Vive Pre

Unity 3D - Is the game engine that was used to build the game.

Powerful PC hardware (includes an Intel i7-4790K processor and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 graphics card) - Runs experience to ensure high level of quality, which necessitates 90+ frames per second to prevent discomfort and motion sickness while maintaining immersion and presence.

Future Applications

While SlayTime may be a game, it’s one that demonstrates the amazing, immersive nature of VR, illustrates the capabilities of the technology, and sparks a conversation about how virtual reality could be implemented in the real world for business and enterprise.

Virtual reality is a way to simulate a dangerous real-world scenario—but without the actual danger. In this puzzle-driven game, for instance, the player is determining how to put things together while under pressure. But imagine if instead of building a weapon to slay a dragon, the user was prompted to perform in a quick-moving assembly-line environment (an automotive factory for instance) or out on an oil rig. The VR experience could be tailored to these specific situations, providing a safe but realistic environment to practice without the risks of the real world.